


see what i see

by icedoverlove



Series: fall in love with witch boys [1]
Category: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger
Genre: Best Friends, No Beta, Self-Love, We Die Like Men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:35:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23154139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icedoverlove/pseuds/icedoverlove
Summary: Taking place in an alternate universe where where witches are at war with people, Princess Biana and Sophie have a conversation about Sophie's crush on Fitz under a table during his Winnowing Gala.orA short side story set in an au about the forbidden romance between Princess Biana and the witch boy, Tam.
Relationships: Dex Dizznee/Keefe Sencen, Sophie Foster & Biana Vacker, Sophie Foster/Fitz Vacker
Series: fall in love with witch boys [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664419
Comments: 7
Kudos: 22





	see what i see

**Author's Note:**

> Well, school is out for three weeks and so I was able to finish up this little 'warm-up' story as a small introduction to a bigger series called "fall in love with witch boys."
> 
> Side note: Can you find the two quotes that I sToLe from some TV series in this fanfiction? If you can, then congratulations, you are a piece of trash! (Comment the quote and show if you think you got it :))

Princess Biana made sure to keep quiet as she crept from column to column in the back of the ballroom. Not that she had to, the room was noisy enough as is, with hundreds and hundreds of teenagers waiting for a chance to talk with Prince Fitzroy. But it was funner this way.

The princess slid behind the main pillar to the left, making sure no one was turned in her direction before she took a mad dash towards the nearest table and dived underneath. It was her ‘tradition’ of sorts, to sneak around without permission whenever Prince Fitz held one of his famous Winnowing Galas to find the perfect girl to enter a courtship with. In Biana’s opinion, he already had a perfect girl right in front of him. He just couldn’t see it yet.

Speaking of which, Biana counted down the seconds from when she had dived from her last position and—

“On time as usual,” she grinned. The princess turned around under the table to face the best squire in the kingdom of Everglen, Sophie Foster, squire to Sir Tiergan. From the way she reached up to tug on her stray eyelashes, Biana could tell that Sophie was nervous about sneaking about this time around. It was Prince Fitz’s Winnowing Gala, after all. And anyone with working eyes could tell that Sophie had it bad for Fitz.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Sophie asked, glancing around despite the fact that the girls were under a table draped in long, silk cloth. “It doesn’t feel right to sneak into someone’s Winnowing Gala, especially Prince Fitzroy’s.”

Biana frowned. “Sophie, where’s your sense of adventure? You love sneaking into parties and stealing food while hiding under the tables with me and Dex. It’s our thing.” Instead of a proper response, however, Sophie only sighed. She turned her head to peek out of a small sliver of light between two of the tablecloths.

“Yeah. But somehow, this time is different…” From the small sliver, Biana was able to make out Prince Fitzroy standing near the tables parallel to where they were hiding. His back was turned to them and a crowd of girls stood around him, all dying for an opportunity to speak. This time, it was Biana’s turn to sigh.

“Cheer up,” she slung an arm around Sophie’s neck, “Fitz has no idea what he’s missing out on.”

At that moment, a loud crash sounded throughout the ballroom, bringing conversation to an abrupt stop. Everyone fell into a temporary moment of panic and whispers began breaking out across the hall.

“Man, that shocked me!”

“What is it?”

“What’s going on?”

“Gosh, it’s not  _ him _ again, is it?”

Biana grinned. “I think that might be our boy.” As if on cue, a lanky boy wriggled his way underneath the table next to the girls’. He dusted off his strawberry blond hair and flashed a bright, dimpled smile.

“Dex, that was—!”

“Amazing,” Biana cut in before Sophie could scold him. Dex had a habit for setting off explosives just before attending a party in order to get that perfect “dramatic entrance” as he called it, and Sophie was always a strong opposer of it.

“Why do you feel the need to do that every single time?” Sophie asked.

“Relax, it’s not that big of a deal,” Dex assured her, swatting away at the air dismissively. All it suceeded in doing was fueling the fire of Sophie’s anger.

“‘Not that big of a deal?’ This violates all the rules of basic safety of our citizens.”

“Gosh, don’t go all Gigantor on us now, Foster,” a smooth, teasing voice broke through their conversation. It belonged to Keefe Sencen, first and only son to Lord Cassius and Lady Gisela. He had scurried underneath the tables behind Sophie and was now leaning into the mini-circle they had formed.

“Keefe!” Sophie turned around it shock. “I didn’t think you would come this time.”

“And miss the Fitzster’s hopeless attempts at flirting with girls he doesn’t like? Not for the world!”

Sophie frowned, shifting aside to allow room for Keefe to sit next to her and Dex. “What do you mean “girls he doesn’t like’?”

That earned an internal groan from everyone in the circle. Sophie was notorious for being the most clueless when it came to romance, but Biana hadn’t realized it was  _ this  _ bad. Anyone with working eyes could tell that Sophie had it bad for Fitz. But it took a miracle to not notice that Fitz liked her, too. The fact that he hadn’t wanted this gala was proof enough of that. The girl of his dreams hadn’t been on his lists, but he still had a reputation to uphold as crown prince of Everglen.

“Oh Foster, Foster,” Keefe shook his head and sighed, slinging his right arm around her neck. “Our dear, sweet, little Foster. What are we going to do with you?”

Dex laughed. “Now that we’re all here, let’s get this (slightly illegal) party started!”

Keefe reached into one of his cape pockets and held out a handful of custard bursts wrapped in a few napkins. “I managed to snag a few of these during Dex’s explosion,” he said with a grin. “But the sandwiches, oh man, you have got to try those.”

“Although I still think this is wrong, I wonder if they have any mallowmelt,” Sophie said.

“Now that’s the spirit! Forget about Fitz and those stupid lists and just have fun tonight,” Keefe took his arm back from around her shoulder and Sophie peered through the crack to see if she could spot a glimpse of her favorite dessert.

“It was to the left if I remeber correctly…” Keefe mumbled. Biana smiled as Keefe and Sophie made a mad dash to the other end of the tables. She watched as Dex carefully balanced a few sandwiches on top of each other before discreetly sliding them underneath the table. She even went and grabbed a couple of ripplepuffs herself. These nights, these moments of fun with her friends, they were all Biana could hold on to. All she had left. And she was determined to protect these moments, even if it meant keeping a huge, life-changing secret from the rest of them.

Half an hour later, their stomachs were filled with sandwiches and desserts, and the first slow dances had started on the dance floor. Biana laughed, imagining the long list of girls that had signed up to dance.

“Keefe,” Dex called, beckoning the older boy forward with his hand. He shifted the silk tablecloth to the side and pointed at something past Biana’s line of sight. The boys shared a wicked grin.

“Sorry guys, Dex and I have some…” Keefe bit his lip. “...important work to do,” he slung an arm around Dex’s waist and pulled the shorter boy against his side, much to Dex’s annoyance. “See you later!” Keefe lifted the white tablecloth and ducked under it, dragging Dex along with him.

“They are  _ so  _ going to set off another explosive, aren’t they?” Sophie shook her head and smiled.

“They  _ so  _ are.”

Now left alone with Sophie, Biana brought up the topic that they had been trying so desperately to distract her from all night. If not, the squire would probably do something stupid like keep it all to herself and suffer the heartbreak silently. Biana had seen her do this to herself one too many times already.

“Sophie, how d—”

“I know what you’re going to say,” she interrupted exasperatedly. Her smile disappeared as quickly as it came, bringing back the worried and anxious Sophie from just thirty minutes ago. Happy and carefree Sophie had left once again. Biana already missed her.

“I’m fine,” Sophie continued. She didn’t look Biana in the eyes and brushed a strand of her hair away from her face. An eyelash was also ripped out in the process. “Fitz is… well, he’s the crown prince of Everglen, next in line to rule the kingdom. And I-I’m just a knight. Not even a normal knight. I’m the freak they found abandoned by the riverside between our borders and our enemy’s. How can someone like me even hope to be with him?” She looked so heartbroken, so defeated.

“Sophie, you aren’t a freak. If anything, you are a blessing to Everglen. People treated you differently when you were growing up, and as a result, you learned to see the flaws of our kingdom and you fought for change. Sophie, we need you the most in our plan to declare peace with the kingdom of Exillium. The mistakes our ancestors made don’t define who we are. And it all starts with you. So don’t ever say that you aren’t worth anything compared to Fitz. He’s a prince. He was born into this role. But you? You were born as someone who was expected to never amount to anything, but instead of accepting your fate, you fought and worked your way up to the top in order to fight for change. That takes real determination. And a strong heart.”

When Biana looked up again, Sophie had placed a hand over her mouth and tears were streaming down her cheeks. “Th-thank you, Biana.”

Biana smiled and leaned forward, wrapping Sophie up in a hug. “I was wondering when you were going to finally see what I saw.”

Sophie hesitantly brought her arms up to wrap around Biana. “When you put it like that…” She trailed off and for the first time since the last Neverseen attack, Sophie let out a soft, lighthearted laugh. There was no menace behind it, no sarcasm to mask how she truly felt. This time, it was a genuine Sophie-laugh.

“See? You know you’re amazing,” Biana smiled, pushing Sophie away to hold her at an arm’s length.

“You’re the amazing one,” Sophie breathed out, wiping at her nose with the sleeve of her tunic.

“I am pretty great, aren’t I?” Biana grinned. Sophie shoved her, laughing.

“You are going to turn into another Keefe if you keep that up,” Sophie joked. “But, um, do you really think Fitz would like someone like me?”

Biana sighed. “All I can say now is…” she paused, “focus on yourself for now. Fitz and all that romance stuff can wait. Self-love comes first.”

“You’re right,” Sophie said with a small smile.

“Although...” Biana said, pushing the tablecloth aside to peer onto the dance floor. The room was now dark with the only source of light coming from flashing colored lights to set the mood. She poked her head out, swiveling it from side to side. “Ah, there he is.”

“Who?” Sophie asked, pushing her way in next to the princess. Biana grinned and pointed across the ballroom. Fitz was standing in the shadows at the back of the ballroom. His back was turned away and he was running a hand through his hair, a thing he did when he was stressed. Biana turned back to Sophie.

“Every Winnowing Gala he does this thing where he just walks off for an hour or so and refuses to talk to anyone for a while. Kind of childish if you ask me, but,” Biana raised one of her eyebrows, “I don’t think he would mind if you went and talked to him.”

Sophie laughed. “Wouldn’t that be breaking your rules though?”

“Just this once,” Biana said with a wink. Just before Sophie left, she turned back to face Biana once more.

“Thank you. Really, Biana, I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“You never have to thank me for anything, Sophie.”

After she left, Biana leaned back onto one of the legs of the table and enjoyed the rest of the plate of mallowmelt that Sophie and Keefe had brought back earlier. Waiting, waiting, wai—

The midnight bells rang, a melodious chime that echoed throughout the castle walls. A small smile couldn’t help but creep it’s way onto Biana’s face.

The witching hour.

_ Ohhhhh yes. _

**Author's Note:**

> why yes, as a matter of fact i did start writing this fanfiction with the intention of making it a tam and biana oneshot but my fingers slipped and it turned into biana and sophie self love. but yes, there will be some nice tiana drama because dammit i miss them and these two are so adorable.
> 
> (also this is slightly inspired by the webtoon hooky by miriam bonastre on webtoon, but not really because i thought of the plot before i read hooky. but some of the themes are the same so--)
> 
> follow me on social media!!  
> ig | @icedoverlove


End file.
